Charleston suspect took inspiration from U.S. group with ties to Canadian

A former Ontario school teacher is an active member of an American "white nationalist" group that appears to have had an influence on the young man accused in the shooting deaths of nine black people in a South Carolina church.

A former Ontario school teacher is an active member of an American “white nationalist” group that appears to have had an influence on the young man accused in the shooting deaths of nine black people in a South Carolina church.

Paul Fromm, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor in Mississauga, Ont., last fall and had his teaching licence revoked because of his participation in racist events and for railing against nonwhite immigration, serves as international director of the Council of Conservative Citizens.

The council, based in St. Louis, Mo., believes that the American people “should remain European in their composition and character” and opposes “all efforts to mix the races of mankind,” according to its statement of principles. Fromm regularly attends council events as a guest speaker.

At one event in Maryland last December, he told a group that diversity was a code word for “white genocide.” On his Facebook page, Fromm calls the creation of police hate-crime units an “abomination,” denounces those who malign the Confederate flag, and labelled a clothing company’s diversity-centred branding as “mind rape.”

Earlier this month, Edmonton police Const. Daniel Woodall, a member of the force’s hate-crimes unit, was shot and killed while serving an arrest warrant at Norm Raddatz’s home.

In an interview with the National Post, Fromm advocated a five-year moratorium on immigration to Canada.

“North America should continue, as it has been, a predominately European chunk of real estate,” he said. “If we’re going to have immigration, it should not upset the ethnic balance.”

An online manifesto, believed to have been written by Dylann Roof, the 21-yearold accused of murdering nine black worshippers at a church in Charleston, S.C., last Wednesday, credits the Council of Conservative Citizens website for drawing attention to “black on white crime.”

“There were pages upon pages of these brutal black on white murders,” the manifesto reads. “I was in disbelief. At this moment I realized that something was very wrong.”

Jared Taylor, a council spokesman based in Virginia, said the council does not condone or advocate violence.

And Fromm said the murders were “absolutely wrong.”

But both stood by the information on the council’s website. One statistic the group often cites is that there are 20,000 rapes against white women by black men annually.

What is not mentioned is that the 2008 U.S. justice department report upon which that number is based shows the vast majority of sexual crimes against white women that year – more than 88,000 cases – were committed by white men.

In recent days, it has come to light that several U.S. Republicans, including presidential candidates Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum and Rand Paul, have received donations from the president of the Council of Conservative Citizens, Earl Holt.

They reportedly plan to return the money or give it away.

Fromm made headlines in 2007 when he was forced to surrender his teaching licence because of his conduct outside the classroom.

The Ontario College of Teachers found that Fromm had failed to uphold the “honour, dignity and ethical standards” of the teaching profession.

“The member spoke against multiculturalism and non-white immigration, (and) used racist language in relation to Jews, Asians and aboriginal people while participating in public events involving individuals and organizations with racist views,” the college said.

Thos events included ones hosted by the now-defunct far-right Heritage Front and included a celebration of Adolf Hitler’s birthday and a rally in which the speaker ended his speech with a Nazi salute and the words “White Power.”

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